Animal Nutrition and Human Health Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha City, 410081, Hunan, China.
Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Hunan Engineering and Research Center of Animal and Poultry Science and Key Laboratory for Agroecological Processes in Subtropical Region Scientific Observation and Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South-Central, Ministry of Agriculture, Changsha, 410125, Hunan, China.
Amino Acids. 2017 Dec;49(12):2099-2106. doi: 10.1007/s00726-017-2497-z. Epub 2017 Oct 6.
The gastrointestinal tract plays a vital role in nutrient supply, digestion, and absorption, and has a crucial impact on the entire organism. Much attention is being paid to utilize animal models to study the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal diseases in response to intestinal development and health. The piglet has a body size similar to that of the human and is an omnivorous animal with comparable anatomy, nutritional requirements, and digestive and associated inflammatory processes, and displays similarities to the human intestinal microbial ecosystem, which make piglets more appropriate as an animal model for human than other non-primate animals. Therefore, the objective of this review is to summarize key attributes of the piglet model with which to study human intestinal development and intestinal health through probing into the etiology of several gastrointestinal diseases, thus providing a theoretical and hopefully practical, basis for further studies on mammalian nutrition, health, and disease, and therapeutics. Given the comparable nutritional requirements and strikingly similar brain developmental patterns between young piglets and humans, the piglet has been used as an important translational model for studying neurodevelopmental outcomes influenced by pediatric nutrition. Because of similarities in anatomy and physiology between pigs and mankind, more emphasises are put on how to use the piglet model for human organ transplantation research.
胃肠道在营养供应、消化和吸收方面发挥着至关重要的作用，对整个机体都有着至关重要的影响。目前，人们非常关注利用动物模型来研究胃肠道疾病的发病机制，以应对肠道的发育和健康问题。仔猪的体型与人相似，是杂食动物，具有相似的解剖结构、营养需求、消化和相关炎症过程，并且与人类肠道微生物生态系统具有相似性，这使得仔猪比其他非灵长类动物更适合作为人类的动物模型。因此，本综述的目的是总结仔猪模型的关键属性，通过探讨几种胃肠道疾病的病因，来研究人类肠道发育和肠道健康，为进一步研究哺乳动物的营养、健康和疾病以及治疗提供理论和实践基础。鉴于仔猪和人类的营养需求相似，且大脑发育模式惊人地相似，仔猪已被用作研究儿科营养影响的神经发育结果的重要转化模型。由于猪和人类在解剖结构和生理学上的相似性，人们更加关注如何将仔猪模型用于人类器官移植研究。
